Alpha male among lions and art of playing defence in attack

Victor Osimhen missed Galatasaray's opening away match against Eintracht Frankfurt through injury. The Germans won 5-1 and the Turks looked lost, the scoreline even kinder than the performance.

Then Osimhen returned - and everything changed.

Liverpool arrived in Istanbul next and were swallowed by the city's furnace-like atmosphere. The Nigerian was a nightmare for the Reds. Yes, he scored the winning goal from the penalty spot, but the real damage came from everything else: relentless pressing, hunting defenders, forcing mistakes. Curtis Jones' back pass? Intercepted. Ibrahima Konate's return ball? Read perfectly. One chance saved by Alisson, another lob attempt, a created opportunity, and a foul won at the edge of the box. Chaos everywhere.

Great strikers miss chances because they create them.

Bodo/Glimt came next and suffered a similar fate. Osimhen opened the scoring with a sharp first-time finish, later intercepted another pass, rounded the goalkeeper and scored again. The third goal came from his sliding duel between two defenders that created the chance, finished by Yunus Akgun. On paper, it was Akgun's goal, but the cameras told the truth: they immediately zoomed in on Osimhen.

Then came Ajax away - and a hat-trick. Two penalties and one classic Osimhen moment: sneaking between defenders and the goalkeeper to poke the ball home from point-blank range. The only surprise was that he didn't score even more. Against Ajax and Bodo, he could easily have had six or seven.

In Galatasaray's seven goals against Liverpool, Bodo and Ajax, Osimhen had a hand in every single one.

Post-Kane era: Bayern already thinking about Osimhen

When he was missing, against Union Saint-Gilloise, Galata suffered their only home defeat in over a year. In Monaco, the whole team collapsed. After the Africa Cup of Nations, Osimhen returned tired and battered, and his impact faded briefly in a draw with Atletico Madrid. At Manchester City, Galata barely touched the ball.

But they still reached the knockout stage.

The turning point came in the playoff against Juventus, a team revived under Luciano Spalletti. The first leg in Istanbul ended 5-2, a perfect illustration of Osimhen's destructive power.

Osimhen's extra-time heroics knock brave ten-man Juve out of UCL

The opener came after his pressing blew a crater in Juve's defense. Later, he forced a catastrophic error from Lloyd Kelly that led to the equaliser, then provoked another mistake for Sasa Boey to make it 5-2. In the return leg, when Galata almost threw away a three-goal lead, Osimhen struck in extra time to bring them back from the dead.

The numbers say everything: in nine Champions League games he played, Galatasaray scored 15 goals. Osimhen was directly responsible for 11.

"He impressed me already at Napoli," said coach Okan Buruk. "I wondered if he might relax a little after coming to Galatasaray. Instead, he did the opposite. His energy lifted the entire team. He doesn't just score - he defends, he inspires, he drags everyone forward."

Galatasaray fans adore him for exactly that reason. Their latest choreography against Liverpool was dedicated to Osimhen and his recently deceased mother. It moved him to tears.

But sentiment does not change Osimhen's mentality. The next match arrives, and he presses harder, runs more, hunts defenders again. For him, there is no past glory - only the next game. And he did precisely that against the Reds, assisting Mario Lemina for the winner.

If he survives Anfield and takes Galatasaray to the Champions League quarter-finals, it will be the stuff of dreams.

But even now, the Nigerian has already done enough for the fans to whisper his name alongside Hagi, Hakan Sukur and Wesley Sneijder.

And if Bayern Munich are indeed searching for Harry Kane's successor, the speculation makes sense.

Because right now, there might not be a more complete No. 9 available anywhere in the world.